The invention disclosed herein is related generally to the art of manufacturing enclosures and cabinets which are utilized to house a plurality of interior mounting boards and accessories for holding electrical components, etc. More specifically, the instant invention is related to a highly versatile enclosure which can be readily restructured by providing for removal and reversibility of door and wall panels solely from the exterior of the enclosure.
It has become increasingly important in manufacturing electrical enclosures that the manufacturer be able to meet the changing demands of its customers and provide a highly versatile enclosure which can be readily restructured and modified to meet their changing needs. Enclosures of the type described herein are often filled to their capacity with sub-panel mounting boards and other assemblies. For this reason, it is also desirous to utilize the interior space of such enclosures as efficiently as possible, and to provide an interior which is substantially obstruction-free, thereby increasing the usable space therein.
Once such an enclosure is filled with sub-panels, etc., it becomes very difficult to access the interior space thereof without the removal of some or all of the sub-panels and assemblies which are contained therein. For this reason, it is often difficult to remove and reverse doors or other wall panels of such enclosures to meet a customer's changing needs, since conventional enclosures generally require access to its interior in order to disassemble and remove doors and other panels for restructuring purposes. For instance, with a conventional enclosure, to remove and reverse the door panel, it is necessary to access the interior of the enclosure to disconnect the nuts from the bolts which secure the door hinge to the enclosure. This becomes extremely difficult and cumbersome when the enclosure is filled to maximum capacity with interior sub-panels, etc. The same is true if one wishes to remove one of the other wall panels which define the enclosure, such as the rear or side panels.
As can be seen from the above, there is a distinct need for an enclosure which is readily restructurable to meet the changing needs of the customer, and does not require access to the interior of the enclosure for accomplishing same. There is also a distinct need to maximize the usable interior space of such enclosures, and to provide a means for mounting removable sub-panels, racks, and other assemblies within the interior thereof without requiring a large number of obstructing interior support members.
The above needs and objectives are met through the use of our separate external mounting blocks, which are utilized in connection with such enclosures, as described herein as the subject matter of our invention. The invention described herein provides for solely external mounting, removal, and reversibility of the various door, rear and side wall panels of an enclosure so as to provide for ease in restructuring the same, without the need for accessing the interior thereof. The invention described herein also provides a plurality of externally mounted support structures which can be utilized for mounting interior sub-panels and assemblies, without obstructing the interior space of the enclosure.